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News You Can Use: 8/23/2017

Google Uproar Highlights Questions Over What You Can or Cannot Say at Work

“There’s no unfettered right for employees to say whatever they want without facing repercussions from their company,” said Daniel A. Schwartz, employment law partner at Shipman & Goodwin LLP. “The question for companies like Google is, are you going to discipline employees for speaking their minds, when you’ve created a platform that encourages it?”

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai tried to strike a balance in a message sent to employees Monday. “We strongly support the right of Googlers to express themselves, and much of what was in that memo is fair to debate regardless of whether a vast majority of Googlers disagree with it. However, portions of the memo violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace,” Mr. Pichai wrote. Google hasn’t publicly named the memo’s author.

There’s an adage that describes why you feel like you have to use up the whole hour: Work will expand to fit the time available, otherwise known as Parkinson’s Law. But you can — and should — break this law when the agenda items have been adequately covered.

Resist the urge and instead think back to your student days, and the jubilation you felt when you were let out of class early. Then use the found time to do something more productive so you can thoroughly enjoy that Summer Friday.

Inspire Confidence in Others with Compassion: A Life Lesson from the Kitchen

3 Leadership Lessons From A Badass Female Yacht Captain

Turn mistakes into teachable moments.
“When I find that people make mistakes, in the past I was more quick to respond. I think with age and experience, I now stop and pause and I think about where the person was in their mind [when they made the mistake]. I don’t make snap decisions like I used to. They are human beings, they are not machines. Maybe they didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Maybe they’re going through a divorce. Maybe their mother has cancer. I think of that and that’s the pause [I take]. And then I think about how I can make this a teachable experience instead of a reprimanding experience.”

Researchers looked at 40,358 published papers and 2,350 patents that stemmed from MIT research between the years 2004 and 2014. In it they discovered that how close you sit to a person can have a dramatic effect on whether or not you’ll collaborate with them. Even a few hundred feet can make a huge difference.

“Intuitively, there is a connection between space and collaboration,” Claudel observes. “That is, you have a better chance of meeting someone, connecting, and working together if you are close by spatially.” Even so, he says, “It was an exciting result to find that across papers and patents, and specifically for transdisciplinary collaborations.” He adds, “In many ways, this data really confirms the Allen Curve.”